There is a major debate going on in the country on large dams versus small dams. This has greatly upset the country’s water establishment and, as Gail Omvedt brought out so well in her two articles on Farmers and Dams, even farmers lobbies. But she has unnecessarily underscored the importance of small water harvesting structures in order to make her point and misrepresented my position on large dams.

I have never been in principle against any technology – from nuclear power stations to supersonic aircraft. Every technology has its upside and downside. It is the social process that controls the use and application of a technology which determines whether a particular technology delivers more good than bad. Unfortunately, the social process controlling the use and application of large dams has been extremely weak in India. Studies on corruption show that corrupt institutions focus much more on the ‘hardware’ of a technology rather than on its ‘software’. Whether it is corruption, incompetence or plain ignorance, it is a matter of fact that the software of the vast irrigational resources created by large dams has been totally ignored, especially the equity and sustainability dimensions. How should the water be used? What cropping patterns should take place? How should the water be shared? How are we going to deal with the problem of resettlement? Many such questions remain unaddressed in large irrigation systems built around big dams. The problem of resettlement is going to grow, if nothing else, because of population growth. A watershed that supported one lakh people will today support probably three lakh people and, in the years to come, even more. Will it be easy to resettle so many people?

Many large dams, especially in the more humid regions, have not brought many benefits, and even where they have boosted agricultural production, as in the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas, in most cases the irrigational resources have been cornered by the more powerful farmers to grow water-intensive but high-value crops like rice and sugarcane leaving many poorer farmers without water. In any case large dams mainly benefit farmers in the plains and not farmers in the hill and mountain regions, which constitute a large part of India's land area where a large number of poor farmers live.

The ultimate problem is that even if the most optimistic projections for large dams and inter-basin transfers were to become a reality, a very substantial part of India will not get irrigation facilities. Uptil now, the government of India has come up with no real programme to address the problems faced by existing rainfed agricultural lands. The government has simply left these farmers in misery, destitution and poverty. This is where the use of the local rainfall endowment and dependence on local water harvesting, whose potential is not small, to provide not only stability but also increase in productivity is critical.

Despite all the immense ills and weaknesses of large dams, I still do not see the small dam versus large dam issue in an ‘either-or’ paradigm but rather an ‘and’ paradigm. While the intensively irrigated tracts created by large dams can help to create ‘national food security’ by generating pockets of high agricultural production with a large marketable surplus, small water harvesting can help poor farmers to gain ‘local food security’ which helps them to meet at least their own food needs and generate a small marketable surplus. This will go a long way in poverty alleviation – a problem that continues to stalk this nation endlessly. Therefore, a massive movement for water harvesting is needed and, where required, the government can build the large dams so dear to it but it must seriously address the extremely difficult ‘software’ problems associated with them and build a social consensus around its solutions. Till then, groups like the Narmada Bachao Andolan have the moral right to oppose such structures. Similarly, large dams will probably be needed to tap the vast energy resources locked in the Himalaya. No nation can turn its back to this valuable resource. But again the public will have to be convinced that the risk of seismicity has been appropriately taken into account.

Despite being a regular commentator on environmental issues, I have consciously refrained from commenting on the small dam versus large dam issue and kept my advocacy limited to water harvesting, especially because this is a wise technology that the government has totally forgotten. And recognising that even small water structures can have ‘software’ problems, I have criticised the governments of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh for the speed with which they have taken up water harvesting even though they need to be praised for their valiant effort. Just like big dams, small dams must be preceded by a social mobilisation programme to address the issues of equity, efficiency and sustainability.